There are only a handful of people on this planet you can call a bona fide, legendary rock star – McCartney, Jagger, Page and Plant, and right up there with them is Queen’s Roger Taylor.

The hits, the flamboyance, the concerts, the legacy are all well known but Queen’s genesis in Cornwall is only remembered by those old enough to have been there and hardcore fans.

Truro is where Queen drummer Roger was born and bred – indeed many Truronians are rightly proud of the connection – but the city and the county itself also played a major part in the rise of the mightiest of rock bands.

I had to start my interview by asking Roger if the infamous story concerning a naked dwarf carrying a silver salver of cocaine at a launch party for a Queen album in the late 1970s was indeed true.

Roger Taylor in full rock god drummer pose

“Oh that’s a myth, that never happened. Actually we were probably responsible for exaggerating that story ourselves.”

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“You definitely can’t take Cornwall out of the boy... I don’t live permanently in the county but I still have a house in Helford. Something always calls me back to the sea.”

The man cited by the likes of Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl as the greatest drummer in the world, reminisced about his first steps into the world of rock while still a pupil at Truro School.

Looks like butter wouldn't melt ... Truro Schoolboy Roger Taylor

“I was in bands all through my teens. I must have played every town and village hall in Cornwall and some in Devon.

“It kept me sane really – while at school it was a way of earning money and, of course, Truro School was an all-boys’ school back then so it was also a way of meeting girls ....

“We played a lot of soul, a lot of covers of popular stuff at the time like Otis Redding and James Brown. I went on to Jimi Hendrix and Dylan, the sound got more progressive.

“The first serious band I had while at school was The Reaction. We played everywhere from the Blue Lagoon in Newquay, Liskeard and Bodmin Town Hall right down to St Just Town Hall and places in Hayle. I also remember early gigs at the Princess Pavilion in Falmouth and Truro City Hall and its annexe.

“A lot of strange people used to come to the City Hall.”

Roger Taylor and the rest of Queen pictured in 1972

After leaving school, Roger headed to London and dentistry college.

“My only reason for going to London was to be in a band. Unfortunately you really couldn’t be in a successful band and still be in Cornwall. I have to admit I never harboured a desire to be a dentist. I enjoyed biology and was told it was very well paid, those were the main reasons I chose dentistry.

“I wanted to be a in a group and a world-conquering group at that. Fortunately my student loan allowed me to live while putting the band together.”

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That band was Smile, featuring Brian May on guitar and Tim Staffell on vocals – “Tim was our Sting. Sting without an ego,” Roger told me.

Was Smile’s music recognisable as Queen?

“Very much so. The sound of Queen was there. Brian always had that very distinctive guitar sound, even back then. We have been playing together, almost telepathically, ever since. You’re very lucky to be in a band and have the kind of musical relationship Brian and I have. We make a lot of noise together!”

A club called PJ’s in Pydar Street, Truro, was very supportive of Smile and, eventually, the Freddie Mercury-fronted Queen. Indeed the band played one of their first concerts with Freddie as singer at PJ’s and Cornish weekly newspaper The West Briton was responsible for a little slice of rock history when printing an ad for the gig, the first ever published mention of Queen.

A piece of rock history from the pages of the West Briton - this 1970 advert is the first ever published mention of Queen

Freddie’s actual debut as lead singer also took place in Truro, a month earlier.

“That was actually arranged by my mother in aid of the Red Cross. We were paid £50 which was quite a lot of money back then. I’m not sure many people turned up though.”

Roger added: “It was a whirlwind of activity after that. From then our lives were 98 per cent Queen and two per cent normal things. We barely had time to see girlfriends and our families, so my trips back to Cornwall were less and less for a few years.

“There are definite gigs I remember around those early years though, like the Tregye Country Club, near Carnon Downs, where the likes of Hawkwind and Arthur Brown all played in a tent. We were way down the bill.”

Queen at the Winter Gardens, Penzance, in 1974

Roger reminisced about looking back at old photographs of the band with Brian: “All the pictures of us looking skinny remind me how poor we were at the beginning. We both felt strangely moved and saddened looking back at it all. A lot of people in those photographs have died or drifted away.

“We recorded the first album at Trident – a very fashionable studio at the time. We didn’t have any money but were being managed by Trident so we were using the downtime when Bowie had stopped recording Ziggy Stardust for the day, and George Harrison was also in there. So often we weren’t getting into the studio until 2 or 3am after they’d gone to bed.”